A Oneness beyond Ego

"When I go within myself, I feel that I have discovered something over which had no power. Life and death are constant changes, but I have something that is one and unchanging." So says renowned contemplative monk Br. David Steindl-Rast.

Is this the deathless soul that survives the ego's death? Is this what we are all here to look for?

Thomas Merton: On the 'Tao'

"The Tao, in the broadest sense, is the way the universe functions, characterized by spontaneous creativity or by regular alterations of phenomena (such as day followed by night) that proceed without effort."

"Effortless action can be seen in the conduct of water, which unresistingly accepts the lowest level yet wears away the hardest substance. Human beings following the Tao, must abjure all struggle  and learn the value of wu-wei (non-striving) through which one approaches a stage of creative possibility sometimes symbolized as a child or infant in Taoist writings."

"In a rough sense, what sin is to the Christian, cosmic disorder (or, at the local level, personal anxiety) is to the Taoist. The ideal state of being, fully attainable only by mystical contemplation, is simplicity and freedom from desire, comparable to that of "an uncarved block.""

[Thomas Merton ,"Thoughts On The East," p. 10.]

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Know the masculine,
Keep to the feminine,
And be the Brook of the World.
To be the Brook of the World is
To move constantly in the path of Virtue
Without swerving from it,
And to return again to infancy.

Know the white,
Keep to the black,
And be the Pattern of the World.
To be the Pattern of the World is
to move constantly in the path of Virtue
Without erring in a single step,
And to return again to the Infinite.

Know the glorious,
Keep to the lowly,
And be the Fountain of the World.
To be the Fountain of the World is
To live the abundant life of Virtue,
And to return again to Primal Simplicity.

When Primal Simplicity diversifies,
It becomes useful vessels.
Hence the greatest cutting
Does not sever.

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The highest form of goodness is like water.
Water knows how to benefit all things without striving with them.
It stays in places loathed by all men.
Therefore, it comes from the Tao.

In choosing your dwelling, know how to keep to the ground.
In cultivating your mind, know how to dive in the hidden depths.
In dealing with others, know how to be gentle and kind.
In speaking, know how to keep your words.
In governing, know how to maintain order.
In transacting business, know how to be efficient.
In making a move, know how to choose the right moment.

If you do not strive with others,
You will be free from blame.

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[Lao Tzu, "Tao Teh Ching," Nos. XXVIII and VIII.]

Karlfried Graf Von Durckheim: On Contemplative Practice

"In order to reconize the reality of this experience of Greater Being, we need nothing more than the 'sacred sobriety' of common sense. This, in fact, is that transcendental realism which is neither clouded nor inhibited by preconceived concepts and rational thought structures. This sense of reality permits the unique, unclassifiable quality of the experience to be as it is, accepts and savours it, and because of its very incomprehensibility, is intuitively convinced of its truth."

"We need to practice in order to acquire the possibility of recognizing the quality of this reality. By remaining alert and constantly prepared, we can learn to hear and feel the call of Divine Being in everything that happens to us. For this we need to work diligently in order to become vessels capable of receiving all that is poured into them. And this practice remember, must not only begin but also end the day. 'Learn to live each day to its end in such a way that it becomes a part of Eternity,' as the poet says."

"We need a new kind of discipline here, one that aims so to develop our inner experience that it is lifted to a higher level. The results of such discipline come not from the sort of practice that is the mere carrying out of specific exercises, but from one that confirms the old saying: 'Each moment is the best of all opportunities.' Thus all things and all events become the field of practice on our journey along the Inner Way. Moving ever onward and keeping in touch with his inner essence, a man transforms himself step by step, into a 'person.' whose transparence to Divine Being makes possible the fulfillment of his human destiny."

-- Karlfried Graf Von Durckheim --
("The Way of Transformation: Daily Life as Spiritual Practice," p. 31.)

"It is a truism," notes Graf Von Durckheim, a practically-minded and modern mystic, "that all work, all art and all professional activity require practice if they are to succeed. This we accept, and in order that we may establish ourselves in the world, it is obvious that we must be at pains in all our vocations, avocations and transactions to practice and assimilate experience. We do not realize, however, that the success of man's most important task - infinitely more essential than any of his arts or professions - also depends upon practice."

"The destiny of everything that lives is that it should unfold its own nature to its maximum possibility," he points out. "Man is no exception. But he cannot - as a tree or a flower does - fulfill his destiny automatically. He is only permitted to become fully what he is intended to be when he takes himself in hand, works on himself, and practices ceaselessly to reach perfection."

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Karlfried Graf Von Durckheim (October 24, 1896 – December 28, 1988) was a strange amalgam of old and new, nobility and modernity, public and private, Western and Eastern. A Bavarian nobleman and professor, he was appointed as a foreign envoy from Nazi Germany to Japan immediately before World War II, where he was exposed to Zen teachings. Interned for a year and a half in Japan's Sugamo prison after the war, he practiced intensive zazen meditation, before returning to Germany and starting a career as a psychoanalyst and spiritual teacher.

Along with psychologist Maria Hippius, Dürckheim founded the "Center of Existential and Psychological Formation and Encounter" in the early 1950s. "What I am doing is not the transmission of Zen Buddhism," he asserted, "on the contrary, that which I seek after is something universally human which comes from our origins and happens to be more emphasized in eastern practices than in the western."

His "Initiation Therapy" dealt with the encounter between the profane, mundane, "little" self — the ego and super-ego — and the true Self. "The therapist is not the one who heals, that is, who intervenes with his own skills," he observed, "he is a therapist in the original meaning of the word: a companion on the way."

(Source: Wikipedia.)

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi: On the Origin of Thought

My first meditation teacher - the only truly enlightened man I have had the pleasure of knowing personally - was grounded in his spirituality by Transcendental Meditation (TM), although his exploration, practice, and knowledge of various religious and spiritual traditions was extensive. He explained (as Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder and first exponent of TM, as we know it, does in the attached video) that all thoughts rise and expand in the subconscious before they pop up, full blown, into the field of our consciousness. Both used the analogy of a bubble rising from a lake bed, expanding as it rises through the water column, before it bursts through to the lake surface as a fully-formed bubble.

The purpose of meditation, I was taught, is to feel the stirrings of the thought-bubbles forming in our subconscious, thereby allowing us to dissipate them gently before they breach the surface of our consciousness and thus disturb the equanimity of our mind. Learning to discipline "the thought-stuff of the mind" in this manner affords us a certain discipline over our thought, speech and actions.

In his commentary on the "Bhagavad-Gita," the Maharishi describes "the main principle" of TM in the following terms:

"The technique may be defined as turning the attention inwards towards the subtler levels of thoughts until the mind transcends the experience of the subtlest state of the thought and arrives at the source of the thought. This expands the conscious mind and at the same time brings it in contact with the creative intelligence that gives rise to every thought."

"A thought-impulse starts from the silent creative centre within, as a bubble starts from the bottom of the sea. As it rises, it becomes larger; arriving at the conscious level of the mind, it becomes large enough to be appreciated as a thought, and from there it develops into speech and action."

"Turning the attention inwards takes the mind from the experience of a thought at the conscious level . . . to the finer states of the thought, until the mind arrives at the source of thought. . . . This inward march of the mind results in the expansion of the conscious mind."

"It should be noted," the Maharishi points out, "that transcendental meditation is neither a matter of contemplation nor of concentration. The process of contemplation and concentration both hold the mind on the conscious thinking level, whereas transcendental meditation systematicaly takes the mind to the source of thought, the pure field of creative intelligence."

Quantum Physics and a "Great Leap" in Consciousness

Dr. Amit Goswami

The following talk on quantum physics and consciousness by Dr. Amit Goswami (of "What The Bleep Do We Know?" fame) gives the viewer an insightful look into the behind-the-scenes operation of quantum phenomena in forming the world we see, a world formation that is driven by our consciousness in Dr. Goswami's view. It is in quantum mechanics, says Dr . Goswami, that science first encounters the free will of the individual, an intriguing proposition that brings science full circle to its metaphysical roots in natural philosophy.

"Consciousness is the Ground of Being," says Goswami, and our present is conditioned by all the past  effects - our "memories of 'who I am'' - which are all reflected in what he calls the "mirror of our memories." In realizing that "the observer is the observed," he notes, we gain true "wisdom."

"But there really is no free lunch," Goswami warns, "we have to meditate and reach these non-ordinary states of consciousness before we become the creator of our own reality." Yet, this is not necessarily such a great leap, he observes. "As this is (becoming) clear," he notes, "we are getting a new wave, a new generation of enthusiastic investigators who are ready to take this leap."

After we take such a leap, "instead of playing in a small pond," says Goswami, "we play in the bigger arena of the world itself. We become a citizen of the universe."

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Transcendental Meditation and Consciousness

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of the
Transcendental Meditation Program

"To understand meditation and consciousness, we need to understand . . . about the physical universe," says Dr. John Hagelin in his introductory video on Transcendental Meditation, below. "Modern science over the past fifty years has probed deeper levels of physical reality. Modern science has explored more fundamental level(s) of nature's functioning."

"From the superficial level of macroscopic physics - the sensory objects that surround us - to the world of the molecule, and the atom, and the nucleus, and  sub-nuclear natures of nature's functioning," he notes, "as modern physics has probed deeper level of nature's functioning it has revealed that more fundamental levels of nature are progressively more unified."

"The four forces of nature deep within the atomic nucleus become three, and two, and ultimately one unified field of all the laws of nature," he observes.

"From this fundamental perspective of modern science," Hagelin notes, "meditation properly understood and properly practiced is a systematic technique to experience deeper levels of mind, more subtle levels of thought, exploring deeper levels of human intelligence. And these deeper levels of human intelligence . . . correspond to the direct experience of deeper levels of intelligence in nature. This inward flow of the awareness quickly culminates in the direct experience of the unified field. . . . In this simplest settled state of human awareness - the most maximally expanded state of human consciousness - this is the meditative state."

"This experience of the unified field constitutes a fourth major state of human consciousness, distinct from waking, dreaming and deep sleep. And this fourth state of consciousness has the most profound implications for health, for brain development, (and) for virtually every area of human life."





Contemplatives and yogis have explored this fourth level of expanded human consciousness for thousands of years. Now with modern technology, brain scientists are confirming the claims of seasoned meditators and enlightened teachers like Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder of the Transcendental Meditation program.

"Brain studies of expert meditators while in 'peak states' have become increasingly sophisticated and better controlled," note a group of researchers whose findings on the effects of distinct, yet related Therevadan Buddhist meditation practices were generally confirmative of Dr. Hagelin's claims.

Much of the research on meditation and the brain involves Buddhist or TM practitioners. A wide selection of the available scientific literature is available on the WiseBrain.org website, an organization founded by Dr. Rick Hanson Ph.D., a neuropsychologist and affiliate faculty member of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley, and Rick Mendius, M.D., a neurologist, author and teacher, formerly on the teaching faculties of UCLA, Oregon Health Sciences University, and Stanford University.

Theravada Buddhism and the Brain

"Brain studies of expert meditators while in 'peak states' have become increasingly sophisticated and better controlled," note a group of researchers whose findings on a distinctly Therevadan Buddhist meditation practice and the brain were published on the WiseBrain.org site.

While much of the research on meditation and the brain involves Buddhist or TM practitioners in only one state of meditation, Theravada Buddhists meditators practicing the "eight jhanas" provided a group of neural researchers (Hagerty, Isaacs, Brasington, Shupe and Fetz) the opportunity to observe a trained Theravadan contemplative in varying states of meditation, utilizing the jhanas as benchmarks and the opportunity to use the resting state of the meditator himself as a control group.

Meditation on the "eight jhanas," while prominent in the Buddha's time, is now largely restricted to the Theravadan tradition centered in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. The contemplative states reached by meditators in the different levels of the jhanas are variously described by the researchers as follows:

"The first jhana is described as intense physical energy and emotional joy, often accompanied by muscle tension, twitching, tears, hair standing on end, etc. The second jhana is more sedate, with physical relaxation, a strong sense of joy coming in waves and only a minor sense of physical energy. The third jhana is energetically quiet, but with strong contentment and happiness. In the fourth jhana the pleasure turns to neutrality, described as equanimity."

"In the fifth jhana one senses an infinite space all around. In the sixth jhana one senses that one’s consciousness has become infinite. In the seventh jhana there is a deep sense of nothingness, an absence of form. The eighth jhana is named “neither perception nor non-perception” because the mind does not even categorize the experience."

Put together, the "eight jhana" meditation sounds like an ascent to nirvana, as do the powerful changes the meditation seems to effect in the brains of the contemplatives - at least based on these results.

Utilizing an EEG connected to the scalp to monitor the contemplative's brain wave functions, the researchers were able to follow the contemplative's sequential ascent through the eight different stages of this focused meditation, and his subsequent descent. And the results, while technical, were impressive.

The researchers predicted that  simple changes in the brain regions responsible for each of the five principal experiential features of jhana state would show that: (1) internal verbalizations fade, (2) external awareness dims, (3) the sense of personal boundaries is altered, (4) the experience of evaluations, goals, and “shoulds” diminishes, and (5) attention is highly focused on the object of meditation.

The data confirmed the researchers' predictions in four of the five categories with mind 'chatter' and external awareness dimming and the sense of personal boundaries expanding. Yet while, the subject's attention was indeed shown to become highly focused, only some of his "shoulds" diminished. One wonders how the subject would have done were he not required to communicate with the researchers via a clicking a mouse as he passed through the phases and peak phases of the jhana meditation. But I guess that, alas, even such a well-designed experiment could not wholly eliminate all the "shoulds" that we each encounter everyday. Thank goodness that in our own meditations we don't have to deal with such distractions, we just need to sit.

For those who remain skeptical of the ability of meditation to change the internal state of a skilled contemplative, check out the video, below, as polymath philosopher/spiritual pandit, best-selling author and meditator, Ken Wilber stops his brainwaves during a progressive meditation.

Meditation and the Neuroplasticity of the Brain

Rick Hanson, Ph.D.

In a world that is quite obviously "on the edge of the sword," says contemplative neuropsychologist Dr. Rick Hanson, "(p)eople are way too driven by greed, hatred, and delusions," the 'three poisons' identified by the  Buddha. Worse, yet, Hanson observes: "Our caveman brains are armed with nuclear weapons."

Hanson, who holds a doctorate in neuropsychology and is co-author (with Richard Mendius, MD) of "Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love and Wisdom," is, however, quick to assure us that all is not lost. Far from it.

Due to the neuroplasticity of the brain - the brain's ability to grow and continually form new neural connections throughout an individual's lifetime - Hanson notes, our ability to exercise "neural networks of happiness, love and wisdom" may be precisely the saving grace that takes us out from under the existential 'Sword of Damocles' that seems to loom so large over our lives at times.

"Neuroplasticity (also known as cortical remapping)
refers to the ability of the brain to change as a result
of one's experience." (Source: Wikipedia)

It is only in the past several decades - during which time our knowledge of the brain increased a hundred-fold, according to Hanson - that neurologists and neuropsychologists have examined the ability of the adult brain to make new neural connections, an ability that may stay with us well into our 'golden years'. Prior to the 1990s, brain-wise, it was widely felt that it was all downhill after age 20-or-so.

Now, Hanson remarks, research amongst so-called 'contemplatives' (primarily seasoned Buddhist and Transcendental Meditation practitioners) has shown that the brain changes significantly as a result of prolonged meditative practice.

"One of the enduring changes in the brain of those who routinely meditate," Hanson notes, "is that the brain becomes thicker. In other words, those who routinely meditate build synapses, synaptic networks, and layers of capillaries (the tiny blood vessels that bring metabolic supplies such as glucose or oxygen to busy regions), which an MRI shows is measurably thicker in two major regions of the brain. One is in the pre-frontal cortex, located right behind the forehead. It’s involved in the executive control of attention – of deliberately paying attention to something. This change makes sense because that’s what you're doing when you meditate or engage in a contemplative activity."

"The second brain area that gets bigger," he further notes, "is a very important part called the insula. The insula tracks both the interior state of the body and the feelings of other people, which is fundamental to empathy. So, people who routinely tune into their own bodies – through some kind of mindfulness practice – make their insula thicker, which helps them become more self-aware and empathic. This is a good illustration of neuroplasticity, which is the idea that as the mind changes, the brain changes, or as Canadian psychologist Donald Hebb put it, neurons that fire together wire together."

"Buddhism teaches that the mind takes the shape of whatever it rests upon," Hanson notes; "or, more exactly, the brain takes the shape of whatever the mind rests upon."

Because of its neuroplasticity, Hanson posits, prolonged meditative practice with happiness and compassion as its objects will breed evermore happiness and compassion, and through this we may find the necessary escape from the Buddha's "three poisons." Meditative practice that trains the mind of the comtemplative towards ever greater compassion and happiness, due to the brain's plasticity, therefore breeds a repetitive and positive cycle leading towards enlightenment, just as the Buddha taught 2,500 years ago.

Science, it seems, at least Hanson's rapidly growing scientific discipline of contemplative neuroanatomy and neurospychology, is catching up with the evidence garnered from the world's oldest wisdom traditions. And, in this field at least, mind science is starting to pick up "the gauntlet thrown down by William James" over a century ago now. Hanson's research, along with the innovative research of many others in this growing filed, it seems, is starting to probe just what 'consciousness' is, and how higher states of consciousness forge not just our mental 'reality,' but also how they shape our physical 'reality' as well.

Finding the 'Stillness' of Our Being

"Be still and know that I am God."

-- Psalms 46:10 --

What is the deepest truth of human existence? What is the deepest truth of who and what you are?

". . . thinking without awareness
is the main dilemna of human
existence."

-- Eckhart Tolle --

These are the the fundamental existential questions which enlightened spiritual teacher, Eckhart Tolle, examines in the attached video excerpt introducing his talk/teaching, "The Deepest Truth of Human Existence."

In the video, Tolle asks the listener to acknowledge and focus on his or her "realm of stillness underneath the stream of mental noise," underneath what the philosopher/psychologist William James termed the "stream of consciousness," underneath the mental phenomena of the human ego which Tolle rightly observes most people are mistakenly identified with as "themselves," or 'who' and 'what' they are in their essence.

"We are here to explore the deepest truth of who you are," Tolle observes, "because you are human existence. We are here to explore the deepest truth within yourself. Knowing yourself at the deepest level, (is) a level so deep that knowing yourself and knowing God become one and the same."

"That which acknowledges that dimension in you," says Tolle, that "which is able to listen to that dimension - (to) listen not to something but to nothing, (to) listen to 'no' thing - that in you which is able to acknowledge that dimension and to be attentive to that dimension, is a realm of existence underneath the stream of mental noise."

It is because of "this stream of mental noise," because of the misidentification of our egoic 'selves' with our real essence, that nearly all of us struggle with our thoughts and the existential questions of 'what' we are, 'who' we are, and 'why' we are here.

"Through thought you cannot pay attention to silence," Tolle notes, "because thought is noise." And, it is because of this conditioned way of constant thinking we have learned, that most everyone in this age struggles to experience the consciousness of God, and experientially witness the 'state of grace.'

Thus, as the psalmist urged millennia ago, it is now - as ever - necessary for the spiritual aspirant to "(be) still and know that I am God."

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

"The world is too much with us. . . ."

-- Wm. Shakespeare --

Challenging the Breadth of Scientific Inquiry and the Mind Sciences

In a discussion of what he calls the "three strands of deep science, integral theorist and philosopher, Ken Wilber, examines different scientific epistomologies (or, the methods by which we gain knowledge) and concludes they can be used to look at interior phenomena, and not just the exterior phenomena that rational empiricists would restrict them to.



For those who have been following this blog, Wilber's talk is a valid response to, and a continuation of Alan Wallace's challenge to mind scientists, urging them to "pick up the gauntlet thrown down by William James" one hundred years ago, and to examine "what" the nature of consciousness truly is.



While Wilber arguabluy remains outside of the "mainstream" of science, he does encourage (as Wallace does) mainstream mind scientists to challenge the existing predominant paradigm that consciousness is a correlate and product of the bio-chemical processes in the brain.

In a popular, interesting, and rather entertaining video, below, Wilber, a long-time meditator, pokes a finger in the ribs of mainstream science, and throws down his own guantlet, by consciously "stopping his brainwaves," as measured on a portable EEG (electro-encepholograph) machine during meditation.



The obvious question this raises, is if one can consciously shut down brain activity with the mind, how can the mind be shut down by what it allegedly produces? Neurological research on long-time meditators and contemplatives has, indeed, picked up in the last 5 years. Nevertheless, one wonders if this research is being done at all outside the dominant scientific paradigm that the brain causes consciousness.

Do you have any thoughts on this? If so please leave a comment.

We All Suffer . . .

"What now is the Noble Truth of Suffering?"

"Birth is suffering; Decay is suffering; Death is suffering; Sorrow, Lamentation, Pain, Grief and Despair are suffering; not to get what one desires is suffering; in short: the Five Aggregates of Existence is suffering."

("A Buddhist Bible," Dwight Goddard ed., page 23.)

We all, every one of us, suffer from the same, progressive and unavoidably fatal illness. Such is life. And the death of each individual in time - itself a relative and wholly self-referential concept, and an unconscious, unseen dimension of the blind perspective of our seemingly separate existence - is inevitable.

Individual and collective suffering - in their nearly infinite forms that are rooted in the desires of the self, groups and societies - is the sole symptom of this uniform malady.

This existential disease presents as the angst of the psyche and causes the sufferer to incur nearly continuous yet varying periods and intensities of irritability, restlessness, discontent, a sense of ennui or non-fulfillment, and/or outright depression. These multiform strains of suffering may be temporarily anaesthetized with varying degrees of effectiveness (or ineffectiveness) by one's ingesting food, drink, drugs, or raw experiences, or by projecting one's inner angst onto others or the world environment at large. Yet, all these 'solutions' are only temporary expedients, and will ultimately fail.

The only known effective treatment for these symptomatic strains that does not exacerbate one's condition and, hence the self-same conditions in others, is to forgo both one's physical and mental attachments to and dependence on these alleviants, as well as the imperative urge to project one's internal strain externally by word or conduct. (This is the pith and substance of Gandhi's and the Buddha's ahimsa, the 'beattitudes' of Jesus, and Hippocrate's dictum, "Do no harm.")

However, to go without these dubious "pleasures" - to have true forebearance without anaesthetics or anaesthetizing attachments and experience - requires that one becomes capable of resting "within." One must become capable of experienceing rest in the deepest and most fundamental "aspect" of one's 'Being' and one's individualized dominion within the "collective soul" of humankind.

To do so, one must either gradually or suddenly - through the intervention of Grace - discipline the mind and body, particularly the ever-moving and ever-arising thought waves of the mind. One must become capable of grasping and developing the most fundamental aspect of one's (and our) 'Being' - an "aspect" beyond the reception, perception and conception of sensory and mental stimuli - the nous of the inner "Self" that allows us to experience and accept ourselves and others, indeed the world as a whole, as exactly the way that it is in time.

Others have said, and I believe it to be true that this is a three-step process consisting, firstly of acquiring a belief in this "acceptive" Unititive "aspect" common to all "beings" and which is fundamental to "Being" itself, and aspiring to the transcendence of the individual "self" through the dilation of one's consciousness beyond the rational and analytic capacities of the mind.

Secondly, one must srengthen this belief through experiential knowledge of this deeper and more fundamental aspect of one's individual (and collective) "Being." This may be accomplished through the interrelated and systematic discipline and application of "self-examination" (being cognizant of the movements of one's thoughts and the emotions which they cause), "meditation" (practicing resting beyond the movement of thought and emotion in one's inner aspect of "Being"), and "prayer," or pausing to affirm and invoke this most fundamental aspect of One's consciousness and 'Being.'

And thirdly, through the accumulation of periods of ever-greater "self" transcendence, when one's suffering self-conscious is dilated to experience the deeper aspect of one's (and our collective) "Being,"
one comes to build one's faith into a knowledge (or gnosis) of one's "Being" beyond time.

And thus ends suffering, as one abides ever-longer and more fully  in this fundamental, asensual aspect of the Ground of Being itself.